One outpost – nine people killed

Dear friend,

Last May, Israel established the settlement outpost of Evyatar on top of Jabal Sabih – a hill near Nablus in the northern West Bank. The outpost was built on land that belongs to the towns of Beita and Qabalan and to the village of Yatma. Since then, the residents of these communities have not had a single day’s peace. Nine months without respite; nine months of fear and loss, and of people killed, wounded and detained.

Since the outpost was established, Israeli forces have killed nine Palestinians from these communities. Eight were shot to death during or near the demonstrations against the land grab; the ninth, a plumber from Beita, was shot and killed near the town’s water mains. As B’Tselem’s field researcher in the area, my heart broke every time I investigated yet another killing.

I cannot forget Sa’id, the father of 16-year-old Muhammad Hamayel, who sobbed, “Who will give me back my eldest son? My son, who was killed defending the hill? They killed him in cold blood! What did he do to make a soldier, armed to the teeth, point his rifle at him, shoot him and take him away from me forever?”

I will always remember Mai, the mother of 15-year-old Ahmad Bani Shamsah. “My son hung a Palestinian flag on an olive tree near the outpost and ran away so the soldiers wouldn’t catch him,” she told me. “But they didn’t even think to run after him, they simply shot him. What crime did he commit to make them kill him like that? They killed my joy, the smiles we used to share when we talked about his dreams. They killed my dream of seeing him grow into a strong, handsome young man. They didn’t only shoot him, they shot me, too. They killed me along with him.”

Everyone here is wondering when it will all be over. Almost every family in Beita has been affected by the new outpost. In almost every home, you can hear a story about the hill – about demonstrations, people wounded, people killed. But despite the suffering and hardship, the people of Beita have not lost hope of returning to their land on Jabal Sabih and working it safely, knowing that no harm will come to them.

They look around, at residents of nearby towns and villages on whose land settlements have been established. They know exactly what their lives could look like if their struggle fails. Thanks to state backing and military protection of the settlers, they already suffer repeated attacks on their homes. They are used to getting up in the morning to find hate slogans sprayed on their homes and cars and their tires slashed. They set out for their fields knowing they may find the trees they nurtured for years cut down or burned, or their crops stolen. The people of Beita fear this will become their reality, too. All they want is to go to work in peace without worrying about their families at home. All they want is for their children to sleep safely.

This week, we are publishing a report about the lethal open-fire policy the military is employing against residents of Beita who protest the establishment of the outpost. According to UN figures, in addition to the people killed in the demonstrations, more than 5,300 have been injured: about 180 by live fire, about 1,000 by rubber-coated metal bullets or sponge rounds, and the rest by tear gas inhalation. More than 100 residents of Beita have been arrested, and Israel has revoked the work permits of dozens.

Meanwhile, in Beita, Yatma and Qabalan, everyone is asking, “How many more dead, how many more wounded and arrested? How much destruction and suffering will it take to return to the hill?”

Yours,
Salma a-Deb’i
B’Tselem field researcher in the Nablus area

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More of our recent work:

Earlier this month, Amnesty International published a report stating that Israel is committing the crime of apartheid against Palestinians in the entire territory under its control. The emerging consensus that Israel is employing a regime of Jewish supremacy from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea is a crucial development in the struggle to change this reality. This recognition is needed in order to fight for a future in which all the people who live here will enjoy justice, equality and respect for their human rights. Until that happens, we will continue to work towards such a future.

In January, Executive Director Hagai El-Ad participated in a briefing for the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Belgian Parliament on the consensus regarding Israel being an apartheid regime. You can also listen to a webinar on the subject held earlier this month by our colleagues from the Foundation for Middle East Peace, in collaboration with MEI, as part of a series of webinars for U.S. congressional staff. In recent months we held dozens of meetings with diplomats from key countries, briefing them on changes that have occurred on the ground during this time, and in light of the new position B'Tselem has taken since the beginning of last year with the publication of our position paper, “This Is Apartheid”. We also took dozens of diplomats on field trips to the South Hebron Hills and the northern Jordan Valley, to complement the publication of our report “State Business: Israel's misappropriation of land in the West Bank through settler violence”.

We continue to stand up to Defense Minister Benny Gantz's decision to ban the activities of several Palestinian human rights and civil society groups by designating them "terrorist organizations." In January, we published a statement along with 12 other Israeli human rights organizations, calling on international donors to continue supporting these Palestinian organizations and if possible, increase their funding.

Like any oppressive regime, the Israeli apartheid regime uses direct violence to uphold the status quo it has established. In addition to our investigative report on Palestinians killed during protests in the village of Beita, we recently published an investigative report on the killing of 15-year-old Muhammad Da'adas, shot in the abdomen by a soldier who was not facing mortal danger during clashes between young Palestinians and soldiers. Another victim of Israel's wanton open-fire policy in the West Bank is paramedic Muhammad ‘Omar, who was shot in the chest from extremely close range by a Border Police officer. The extrajudicial killing, in broad daylight, of three operatives from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade – Ashraf Mbaslat (21), Muhammad Dakhil (21) and Adham Mabroukeh (26) – while they were traveling in a car in the center of Nablus is the latest example of this policy.

The military’s open-fire policy is much more lethal in the Gaza Strip, where Israel operates virtually unrestrained, especially during rounds of fighting. You can read here about our investigation into the bombing of high-rise towers in Gaza City during the latest fighting in May 2021. You can also listen here to our director of research, Yael Stein, in a webinar on accountability following our last report on the subject, “Unwilling and Unable”, which focused on the whitewashing of killings and injuries during the Great March of Return protests.

It did not take live fire, but only random violence and indifference, for soldiers to cause the death of 78-year-old 'Omar As'ad. The case received broad media coverage, apparently because the victim was a US citizen. Yet again, the headlines temporarily raised the bar of criticism Israel has to deal with, so yet again, a scapegoat was found – in this case, the ultra-Orthodox battalion of Netzah Yehuda. However, as B'Tselem Spokesperson Dror Sadot explained, the problem is not one military unit or another, but the occupation itself – and such incidents will recur so long as it continues.

Settler violence against Palestinians also made headlines in recent months. The media and public treat these acts of violence as the private initiative of settlers. Yet they are another form of the violence employed by the Israeli apartheid regime to further its goals: continuing to dispossess Palestinians of resources and transfer them to Jews. That is why no one is held accountable and why soldiers do almost nothing to stop the assaults. In recent months, we published dozens of updates on settler violence on our dedicated blog. We also published an extensive summary of settler attacks against Palestinians during the latest olive harvest and expanded on several particularly severe incidents, such as the assaults on harvesters in Turmusaya in October 2021, and in Sadet a-Tha'leh and Khirbet Khallet a-Dabe' in the South Hebron Hills in November 2021. These cases demonstrate the arbitrary responses of the Israeli security forces: expelling the Palestinian victims from their land, firing at them and leaving them to fend for themselves.

Meanwhile, official arms of the apartheid regime are pressuring the most underprivileged communities in the West Bank to leave their homes, ostensibly of their own free will, in order to take over their areas of residence. In the last three months, we reported on repeated temporary evacuations of communities in the northern Jordan Valley. Officially, the residents are forced to briefly evacuate their homes so troops can train there (among their homes and cultivated fields). In reality, this practice illustrates, yet again, that the regime does not see Palestinians as human beings with rights, but only as obstacles to taking over their land. You can follow the incessant stream of temporary evacuations, demolitions of homes and public structures, destruction of access roads, confiscation of equipment and more on our blog, Communities Facing Expulsion.

In the Gaza Strip, Israel continues to control every aspect of residents' lives by imposing a suffocating blockade. We recently published reports on two features of this reality: cutting Gazan prisoners held in Israel off from their families, and holding back patients who need to leave Gaza for medical, sometimes lifesaving, treatment.

For Palestinians in East Jerusalem, life is similar to the reality in the West Bank: they have no real chance of receiving permits to build legally and are forced to live, often for many years, under the constant threat that their homes and businesses will be demolished. In many cases, the threat is fulfilled. In November and December 2021 and in January 2022, a total of 42 Palestinian homes were demolished in the Jerusalem area on orders of the Israeli authorities; 195 people, including 82 minors, lost their homes. In addition, 11 uninhabited homes that were intended to house 36 people, including 23 minors, were demolished, as well as 68 non-residential structures.

This, too, is one violent practice among many. The occupation routine in East Jerusalem also includes arbitrary police brutality, such as the night raid on the Abu Al-Hummus family’s home in al-‘Esawiyah, or the attack by Border Police officers on Ahmad Mteir as he made his way to work. The various features of this routine appear in central Hebron, too: the detention and arrest of children, humiliating physical inspections, false arrests, night raids and violent searches of homes. The same rationale informed the collective punishment of the village of Deir Nizam, which the military blocked off for 50 days, during which time soldiers invaded the village 17 times, harassed residents and arrested students on school grounds.